Four Winds
by Parakeet Commandersons
Summary: The Story of Link, a treasure hunter who wants to find more than just gold. He wants to find himself. He's unknowinlgy thrown into an adventure that will shape his destiny and reveal his true colors.


_Author's Note: Thanks for checking out my story. While reading, imagine a realistic look of The Wind Waker. Link is about 17 and a treasure hunter on the Great Sea. He has a little brother, Lyle, who looks like a young version of Link. This is pretty much my spin of The Wind Waker. I loved that story, but I just wanted to create a realistic version. You'll notice that the two stories are completely different, yet comparable. I did that on purpose. I mean, I'm not re-writing WW. Just using it as a frame. The story is bound to get deeper and more meaningful. I hope you can relate to it in some way. Enjoy!_

* * *

The ocean is still my home, though I can't always see where I'm headed. The horizon stretches out far beyond my imagination, anything I can fathom. The adventure is tangible, a bitter-sweet combination of joy, excitement, and terror. I am not alone. The sea gulls are watching out for me. They are searching with me. They seek my goals and dreams, but they cannot understand what those may be. Do I know? Does anybody know? Curious . . .

* * *

_Chapter One: Treasure Island_

"Link, wake up." I rolled over and stuck my head underneath my pillow. I could feel the heat from the sun leaking in through my window. A wave crashed up against the boat and rocked it slightly.

"Get out, Lyle. Do you have any idea what time it is?"

Lyle pulled out his metronome and set the tempo at a fast pace. "This here says it's late morning. You haven't made breakfast yet, and Koume and Kotake are hungry." Lyle put his metronome on the floor and studied it carefully. He got down on all-fours and put his face right up to it. "Hmmm . . ." He flicked a piece of dust from the side of it.

"Koume and Kotake can make it themselves. They're witches. You'd think they'd figure out a toaster by now." No matter what I said, I knew I'd have to get up anyway. I felt the boat rock as I place my feet back on the floor of the boat. I stood up slowly to make sure I didn't fall over. It's been a while since we've all been out to sea. We stopped at a deserted island for about a week, in search of treasure. While I rubbed my eyes, I could hear Lyle's little bare feet tap quickly out of my room and up the stairs, onto the deck of the ship.

I stumbled my way out the door and down the hall, into the kitchen. Koume was sitting in her usual chair at the eating table, sipping out of a red mug. "Good morning, Link," she muttered. Kotake was sitting at the bar playing solitare with a deck of blue-backed cards. "It's about time!" she shouted.

"Hey," was all I could say.

"Did you sleep well?" asked Koume as she tied back her aging, silver hair.

"Well of course he did!" retorted Kotake. "Anyone who sleeps in must feel pretty awake. Maybe if you weren't always drunk, we wouldn't have this problem." It was true, I think I did have a hangover, but I only drank once in a while. I mean, I AM seventeen years old. It's legal. "What a great example he's setting for the kid."

"What do you want for breakfast?" I didn't need a lecture. I just wanted to get on with the day.

"Never mind that now, Link," said Koume, "We've got a hunch about some treasure located in the South Western Quadrant. Sector Y-5." A giant map appeared over next to the bar. It zoomed in to the quadrant, and then again at the exact sector it was in.

Tingle walked in with his telescope and balloon. His shoes jingled with every step he took. He always looked ridiculous: Garbed in all-green, with a hat and boots. He claims to dress like some ancient hero, but the rest of us just thinks he dresses to filter some of his creativity. Either way, he's a tremendous asset to our team because when he inflates his balloon and flies over the boat, he can see far, far away with his trusty telescope. "That's right! It's not too far away, either. He danced around the room until Kotake shot out a blue bolt of light at his feet and froze him in his tracks.

"Alright, great! Anyone guarding it?" Tingle stared blankly at me as Koume slowly thawed him out with a small ember illuminating from her index finger.

"Well isn't there always?" he asked me, shaking off some ashes from his foot. "Let's just see once we get there."

"Well, what kind of guard are we dealing with? Can we take it?" I wasn't very convinced about this mission. Tingle would usually find out every last detail of any information that would be important to our finding the treasure. Is there something he's hiding from us? I guess we'll all just have to wait and see once we get there.

Suddenly, Lyle came running down into the kitchen. I never realized how much he looked like me. His blonde hair, blue eyes, pointed ears . . . I wonder where we got it all. We never knew our parents. For as long as we can remember, we lived on this boat. Koume and Kotake were really the only elders we had to teach us. A pirate's life was always the life for us. Maybe we're searching for something deeper than what any treasure can give us . . .

"It's raining pretty hard out there," he said, wringing out his blue shirt with the big white lobster on it. "The Boko Babas probably love this weather we've been having."

"Enough small talk, kid, come get some breakfast." Kotake waved him over as she poured him a glass of Chu-Juice.

"I'd better go see how Captain's holding up," I said. I left the merry chatter in the kitchen and climbed up the stairs. I felt a cold hand on my shoulder, but when I turned to see who it was, I saw nothing. I wondered what life would be like in a real home, but at this point, I think I wouldn't trade what I have for anything.

When I opened the door to the deck, I saw Captain, a short, blue Bokoblin frantically turning the wheel of the ship. "Arrr! Good morning, Link!" Captain's under-bite made him look like an idiot, but the truth is, he was very intelligent.

"Hey, Captain. Everything going okay?" I climbed up the watch-tower and sat at the top. There were seagulls under the umbrella so I tried to squeeze between them. I never wanted to bother or hurt a seagull for any reason. They're the only friends you have at sea, other then the crew of your ship.

"Arrr! Everything's just fine! It's getting kind of rough, but I think we can handle it. Tingle mentioned an island up ahead with a precious treasure. Doesn't say much about it, though. Kinda fishy, if you ask me. Arrr!"

"I know, I'm really curious to see what it is." What kind of precious treasure could there be, other than what we've been collecting all along? We already have enough rupees to build a mansion.

"I say we just trust the little fella. Arrr! He's never let us down before."

"That's true, Captain. We'll just have to see when we get there." One of the seagulls flew off ahead of the boat. It swooped down into the ocean and I lost sight of it, just like everything else.

* * *

"Land ho!" shouted Lyle as he ran down the stairs. I was sitting with Kotake in the gallery. She was giving me another lesson on trigonometry.

"So you see, then, that the tangent of theta is equivalent to the sine of theta divided by the cosine of theta and the cotangent is – "

"I said, LAND HO!"

"Wha!?" Kotake dropped her quill and spilled the ink all over her gown. "Rats, I always do that. Son, you find yourself funny?" Lyle apologized and offered to help clean up. "Nonsense, I'll get it." She froze the ink on the floor and picked it up in one big glob of ice. "No harm done."

"We've hit land?" After three days since Tingle's sighting, we've finally landed on the island with the precious treasure.

"Yeah, we're on Treasure Island!"

Imagine that . . .

Kotake hopped on her broom and flew up the stairs onto the deck. I could still hear the rain falling hard. I made my way up the stairs and out onto the deck. The island looked like it was home to a few families. There was a pig farm with a huge black pig snorting and eating inside its stall. The houses were made out of wood and they all had an insignia of a triangle on the front doors. I looked up and noticed a huge bridge connecting one side of the island to the other. One side had a peaceful forest perched on top.

I climbed down the side of the boat where Tingle was talking with an elderly woman. She wore a bright red dress and her silver hair was tied back in a bun. Her face was calm and she wore a small, welcoming grin. "This must be Link," she said.

"Nice to meet you." I held out my hand for her to shake. Instead, she walked up to me and embraced me. Big bear hugs are uncomfortable.

"Tingle has told me a lot about you. Shall we go inside? It's raining awfully hard out here." She turned around and walked up onto her wrap-around porch. Once she got to her door, she turned around to face us. "I'm sorry, where are my manners? You can call me 'Granny.'"

The inside of her house was small. The first thing I noticed was a tall ladder that led up to a small platform close to the ceiling. Once I walked past the ladder, all I could see was one small room with a fireplace, a stove, and a bed. Though it was small and quaint, it felt comfortable and I wouldn't even mind living in an area as small as this. Granny pulled out a bottle and swooped up a serving of a gold liquid from a pot on her stove. "I made soup," she explained. She handed me the bottle. I opened it and smelled it. It had an odor I didn't quite recognize. I took a sip anyway. The moment the soup hit my tongue, I felt warm all over. It tasted magical, almost. I immediately felt refreshed and ready to go.

"Granny, this is delicious." I handed the bottle to Tingle who gulped the rest down.

"It's my world-famous gold soup." Her face turned red and she sat in her small, poofy, maroon chair. "Where are the others? I thought you had a full party." I didn't even notice the rest of the crew wasn't with us.

"Captain took Koume, Kotake, and Lyle to see your neighbor's pig farm," said Tingle. "They're picking up some meat from Farmer Dan."

I wondered what we were doing on this small island. "So Granny, what's the name of this island?" I almost felt like I was being rude, but I think I had the right to know.

"This is Outset Island. Not a lot of people live here, and it's pretty unknown to the rest of the world, but we choose to live here because it's safe." She was knitting while she talked to us.

"What makes it so safe?" I asked. Surely, pirates could easily find this place and rob them of the precious treasure they're keeping here.

"That's what we're getting to Link," said Tingle. "See, I've known Granny for a long time. I used to make maps for her when she to traveled the world."

Granny chuckled and blushed. "That was a really long time ago."

"There's a treasure on this island of Outset that money cannot buy. It belonged to the Ancient Hero of Time. Granny says that we can have it if we can get it."

"I'm warning you, it's not easy. But if you think you can handle it, then the reward will help you tremendously in your quests for treasure. . . . And anything else you might get yourself into. Climb up the ladder, Link and take what you can find."

I was starting to wonder what kind of treasure this could possible be. I didn't ask any questions, though because I knew whatever it was, it would be a big help in the future. At the same time, I felt myself opening up a big can of worms; and whenever you do that, you have to take all the good WITH the bad. I climbed up the ladder to find a small bed. The wall was bare, except a picture of Granny and a young woman with blonde hair and a long, white gown. She was beautiful. I knew I'd never met her, but she seemed so familiar to me. I shook myself from my trance and I looked under the bed. There was a small, wooden box with the words, 'To Granny, with love,' on it. I opened it to find what looked like a wooden sword inside. I held the handle of it. It was heavier than my small knife I used to fight beasts. The wood was sharp and I knew it would make an excellent weapon.

I jumped down from the platform and landed hard on the ground. "Thanks so much, Granny!" This is terrific!"

"Oh, you're very welcome, Link," she replied. "You have more use of it than I do." Tingle giggled excitedly and gave Granny a hug.

"We'll come back and visit you often, I promise!" He let go and ran out the door.

"What do we do Granny?" I asked once Tingle left the room.

"From here," Granny began, "climb up the hill behind the pig farm. There's a path. You might run into a Chu-Chu, but don't worry. They're completely harmless. They're just a pile of sludge. They like hugs, though, so be careful not to trip. Once you climb the hill, you'll be at the top of the island. Just cross the bridge and head into the forest. There's a fountain there. You'll know what to do." She hugged me and rubbed my back. She opened her door for me and led me out. The rain was calming down. Tingle headed toward the pig farm and I knew that what I had to do had to be done alone.

* * *

There I stood, in front of the bridge that led into the Outset Forest. I was completely unaware of the adventures that lay ahead of me. I was in for the adventure of my life, the love of my life, and the events that would completely alter the way I saw and did things. Little did I know that the changes that were about to happen would not only change my life, but everyone's around me as well. The life I once knew would suddenly turn heroic and I would embark on an adventure that would become a legend and remembered forever by everyone. I wasn't scared. But I should have been. I ran carelessly across the bridge and entered the forest of Outset.

* * *

_Author's Note: Alright, so hopefully I set up the story in a way that will keep you wanting more. I planned to make this a romantic story with no definite plot. I'm still going to keep romance involved, but I feel that this story needs an adventure to go with it. Just stay tuned for Link's love life to unfold. Not to mention tons of new characters and stuff. I thought I'd mention that Link is wearing clothes similar to the ones he started out with in TP. I mean, he's a pirate. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. Oh, boy. This story is going to be an exciting one!_

_-Parakeet Commandersons_


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